News Round-up(10/2/2024)

 Wars and rumors of wars.......

Saying the quiet part out loud. - It's never been about stopping climate change. It's always been about a redistribution of income from wealthy nations to NGOs and other quasi-governmental firms who will then tell the poor what to do.

That's quite the increase. When you  have elected leaders who truly believe that property ownership is theft from the government then you get results such as these.  If you don't already have a plan for an exit strategy out of Harris County you should start planning one.

As a matter of fact, a Texas exit strategy might not be a bad idea. The problem, and their are many, with Texas Democrats right now is that they have been out of power for so long that they are angry, and are going to overreach and are going to make life miserable.  The best thing for Texas right now would be some balance. I do not think we're going to get that, and I think the reversal is going to be stunning. Mostly because of a lack of adults in any room in government.

The biggest news story people are not paying enough attention to. This could be a big deal. In large part because the head of the union appears to be a low-functioning idiot who cannot even remember his 3 main talking points without having people remind him of what they are. I don't begrudge them their pay requests, but fighting against technological upgrades is akin to an old man hollering at the clouds. For this to get resolved the union is going to have to appoint a leader who can speak into a microphone without spitting on the first three rows.

Did you watch the VP debate last night? I did not. Nor did I watch either of the two Presidential debates. Kamala is a tool, Trump is a narcissist. No matter who wins, America loses.

BadScience People can say whatever they want to say when there are no repercussions. 

Will the last business to leave California please turn off the lights? The problem with government by boogeyman is that you, eventually, will run out of boogeymen to blame all of your problems on.  Eventually the people will look to you as the culprit.  Of course, by then they're probably too poor and there are no jobs left to matter anyway.

I really hope that this is the last we hear of Anna Delvey

RIP Dikembe Mutombo One of the great Basketall big men and ambassador's of all time.  And one helluva commercial star.

RIP Pete Rose. One of the most controversial baseball figures of all time. Both one of the greatest hitters and, apparently, one of the worst betters to ever grace the game.  In an age where games are sponsored by FanDuel and DraftKings it's time to relent and put the man in the Hall of Fame. at this point the hypocrisy is through the roof.

And finally...

One of the reason's we continue argue about climate change is that the arguments of the climate warriors are based on lies and logical fallacies. No one involved in carbon capture is suggesting that it is a silver bullet that will 100% solve the problem, yet that is what the climate warriors are attesting. 

In fact, the world HAS made some progress on carbon reduction and, China, India and some other nations notwithstanding, the Western World has taken steps to reduce their carbon omissions. But the climate warriors want stupid goals like "zero carbon now" and "just stop oil" which would plunge the world into economic chaos, kill Billions, and knock us directly back to the dark ages. Perhaps they do want a return to the days with the Catholic Church was the font of all knowledge and truth?  Of course, this time around it would not be the Church, it would be the United Nations.

Think about how scary that thought is.

Die!!! Gun-Owner (figuratively)

There have been multiple examples of instant, on-line meltdowns that immediately send the originator back-pedaling faster than an Akin endorser.  Ashton Kutcher (not a smart man obviously) has had several, athletes get in trouble all the time for silly things, and have you seen any of Anthony Weiner on social media these days?

Typically the items people go red-faced over are stupid comments made in the heat of the moment after one tragedy or another has inundated the news, for Eddie Nimibutr, this was the case and I'm guessing his business is going to be severely depressed for a while because of it.  Apparently he's seeking business survival advice from the Almighty which is probably not a bad idea.

In Houston, we had our own Lone Ranger running through the streets on a rhetorical Silver.  Former Hatch Act violator John Cobarruvias (always full of wit) is at it again.  This time he's decided that all members of the NRA should die a most horrible death. At least, that's what he tweeted in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting:

h/t to Rhymes with Right for the image (linked above)

According to KTRK reporter Deborah Wrigley, Cobarruvias says that "it's just his personal opinion" and that "it wasn't a death threat".  What he never did say was that he's sorry for saying it (not even the fake-apology of "I'm sorry if anyone was offended") or that he really didn't mean it.

That's all well and good and really I don't care much about the ramblings of one very angry member of the Texas Democratic leadership team spleen-venting on Twitter. What does concern me is the lack of thought that went into this rant, and so I guess it falls to me to, once again, provide Texas Democrats with a little bit of free advice.

A lot of gun owners have money.  A lot of NRA members, and their defenders, have money.  Shooting them, ignoring the fact that they have most of the guns and that would be difficult, is going to make a mess of the President's idea to "tax the wealthy so they pay their fair share."  I'm sorry but it just is.  Now, there's the argument that the Fed would receive a temporary bump due to increases in the death tax, but that would be fleeting and would put us right back in the same financial hole we currently find ourselves, but with far fewer of the wealthy hanging around that you folks like to demonize.

Therefore, in the future, I would advise that you go way back to a John Cobarruvias classic and just threaten to stick your size 9's so far up their hind-quarters they smell Desonex for a week.

Problem solved.  Cobarruvias would still look like an angry idiot, Texas Democrats would still be substituting hollow threats of violence for actual policy, and Obama would still have in place his plan for economic "fairness".

It's a win-win really.

That's almost 10K per job.

Apple, World's most valuable company, to get $6.4 Million in Travis County Tax Breaks. Mike Cronin, Texas Watchdog.

So important is keeping Apple Inc. – the world’s most valuable company as of January – in Austin that Travis County officials have cobbled together a deal that would give the computer behemoth up to $6.4 million in tax rebates, the Austin-American Statesman reports today. A total of $36 million in state- and local-government incentives could be going to Apple, writes the Statesman’s Farzad Mashhood.

My 10K calculation is based on the $36 Million number, which would be the total amount of government subsidies for around 3500 35K/Yr jobs. That's almost 1/3rd of the salary that would be directly subsidized.

I've no problem with iApple paying lower taxes. As an accountant specializing in regulatory tax in the Oil and Gas industry I'm all for paying the tax that you owe, but trying to pay as little as is legally possible. What I do have a problem with is corporate welfare in the form of tax credits. Yes, I even mean tax credits to the oil and gas industry for gas production when prices are at historic lows. If anything, these tax incentives need to go away when the demand is not there. Yes, I know, this runs counter to what you normally hear from our elected officials on the Left when oil prices get high but, if anything, this is when incentives should kick in, to spur much-needed additional production. When natural gas is hovering around the $2/MCF level it's probably accurate to say that production does not need to be spurred.

Apple is a different story. They are currently receiving a premium price for their products due to the cool factor of iApple. The company has done a good job reducing their tax burden up to this point, and I see no reason they should stop trying now. I do have a problem with the State and County offering iApple a de-facto give-away that is going to place additional tax stress on the rest of the Country. A better plan would be to work with State and local business leaders to broaden the tax base, and lower the rate. This would allow the rising tide to raise all ships, not just the one from iApple.

A second problem that I have with this is inside the article (and headline) itself. I'm a fan of Texas Watchdog, and I appreciate their reporting mainly because it's typically presented accurately and without bias. The headline and the lead paragraph contain much of the language you see from the Occupy crowd, language that I feel is unecessary and serves only to bias the reader against the tax-break plan through the use of class warfare. In reality, it doesn't much matter how big, or how valuable, iApple is today. If this same deal was to be offered to a small-cap start up it'd still be a flawed plan.

One of the main arguments against the Federal income tax code is that it's an inconsistent, loophole-filled mess of a document. Given that Texas pols love to talk about "doing things the Texas way" wouldn't a good solution be to stop making Texas tax inconsistent and loophole-filled? Why not try to broaden the base and make the tax rates as low as possible for all?


And can we rid ourselves of the silly Occupy class warfare? It's bad for business. (i.e. jobs, and benefits, and people's well-being and society in general)

Small-government conservatism the Combs way.

h/t: Kevin on this story.


Amazon.com agrees to begin collecting Texas sales taxes, Scott Nishimura, Fort Worth Star Telegram

I've no beef with the tax collection settlement. I think it's wrong-headed policy, and I think it makes things less economical to purchase over the web, but this is a rising tide for taxation that our ever-expanding governments can't help but try and get their hands on. What every conservative Texas should remember during Combs next election is this:

However, Congress should pass a law.....

No, Congress shouldn't pass a law. This is a State revenue issue that should be decided at the Statehouse level. If a State wants to collect Internet taxes, then it is their right to do so. If they choose to forgo the tax in an effort to increase electronic retail in their state they should have that right as well. Combs pleading to the Federal Government to bail her out of having to take responsibility for a tax increase is NOT conservative.

Remember that the next time she comes up and wraps herself in the flag of Reagan and asks you for your vote.

On another note: This "sales tax" increase is going to be regressive, so you would think the InterLeft would be against it. (After all, they're opposed to an increase in the sales tax rate.) You'd be wrong. I found this sentiment unusual however:

Negotiations are in progress to get Amazon to pay something like its fair share

I wonder if Kuffer understands that Amazon won't be paying anything? They'll add a charge to the bill for "Texas sales tax." Amazon will be passing this charge to the customers 100%.

There's no 'payment' being made by anyone other than Texas consumers at Amazon.com. It says so in the second paragraph of the news-story from which he extensively block-quoted:

A deal would apparently end the state’s attempts to force the company to collect sales taxes.

It also appears that this deal ends the collection attempts on back taxes, with the agreement that Amazon collect in the future.  Other than being put at a slight competitive disadvantage (the argument against the sales tax was that customers have to pay for shipping. Now, on-line, customers will have to pay for both. It's a lose-lose if you shop on the Internet.) Amazon is going to pay nothing.  At least, that's how the Nishimura article makes it sound.  It's possible further details will emerge that could change that, but until then it appears that the Texas consumer is the loser once again.

The definition of "wealthy" keeps dropping.

First it was tax increases for "Millionaires and Billionaires", then that got dumbed down to "the rich". Now the Democrat's bar for "those who aren't paying their fair share" is dropping even lower:


Boehner calls Obama's travel plans 'pathetic'. Lisa Mascaro, LA Times

Democrats want to tax upper-income earners -- those earning more than $200,000 a year or $250,000 for couples -- who are able to avoid certain taxes because they organize their income as small, so-called subchapter-S corporations. Those companies with fewer than three workers would be hit with the new tax.

This is in line with my prediction that the definition of those "not paying their fair share" will be any household with an annual income in excess $100K as the LibDems turn up the populism in an effort to convince the poor that the rich middle class is the enemy.

In this situation they're focusing on "S" corporations, small businesses with few employees. This keeps the taxes from falling on their own backs, for the most part.


Funny how that works.

City of Houston has more to spend....

....which means that we'll see an increase in boondoggles right?

City finances get a boost from HCAD projection, Chris Moran, ChronBlog

The city of Houston may have $21 million more in income in the coming fiscal year than it had planned on before Wednesday. That’s when it got the news that the Harris County Appraisal District projects that taxable values in the city — and by extension, the amount of taxes it collects on that property — will rise 4.54 percent in 2012.

The article goes on to say that sales tax revenues were up 10-11% in the first half of Fiscal Year 2012, meaning another $26 Million that the City will have to play with for this year.

While I'm not opposed to the City receiving more money, I am concerned with the manner in which they will spend it. The last few days have revealed some stunning spending priorities by the Parker administration, given the current economic climate. If things start getting better (and I hope they do) who knows where Mayor Parker is going to want to direct those funds?

Given the problems the City is facing with the pension fund, police and firefighter staffing, infrastructure et al. you would like to think the money would be directed there. Given Houston's recent history however I expect it to go toward a "world class" Ugandan language and cultural center designed to bring an expected wave of Ugandan immigrants into Houston culture or some nonsense like that. After all, we do know Herroner likes the Internets, and I'm sure she's seen the Kofy video by now....

Government solutions in search of a problem.

Study: Healthy eating is privilege of the rich, Donna Gordon Blankenship, AP via Chron.com

A healthy diet is expensive and could make it difficult for Americans to meet new U.S. nutritional guidelines, according to a study published Thursday that says the government should do more to help consumers eat healthier.

Of course it does. Because that's the manufactured "solution" to every perceived "problem" out there: A big, expensive, government program that takes money from those that have, and gives it to those that have not.

I would suggest the "solution" is not as complicated (or expensive) as our Statist experts would have us believe.

- Square foot gardening: Teach people, yes even people in apartments, that cultivating a small garden is doable. Yes, it takes work, and work is something that the Statists feel people are not willing to do. But it only costs pennies for a few seeds, possibly a few dollars for a seedling. The ROI on these, if properly tended, is exponential. It's also a good way to teach kids responsibility and install a work ethic, something the Statists understand would put an end to their desired way of life.

- Remove subsidies: The reason it's "more expensive" to eat healthier is because we've let the Government subsidize our food supply thus ridding it of diversity. In reality, the costs that are seen for healthy foods are closer to a real cost than the incredibly low costs for "unhealthy" foods. Simple supply and demand dictates that, as it becomes less profitable for big companies to continue growing wheat, corn and soy, our agriculture will rediscover other grains etc. Because there is more supply, the price on these "ingredients for the wealthy" will eventually moderate.

- Rein in what people on assistance can buy: Don't want people eating unhealthy? Restrict the food options on programs like the Lone Star Card. Fresh fruits, vegetables, dairy and meat. (not processed meat) That should about do it. If someone wants to eat a chocolate bar there's nothing that says they can't do it, just not on the government dime.

- True cost: Used to be a sign of being wealthy was to be plump. That's because the rich could afford food and the poor cannot. In today's society being fat and sloppy are signs of being poor, while the wealthy are bronzed and fit. That's because the poor are now eating TOO MUCH unhealthy food. Perhaps being forced to purchase less healthy food would be a good prescription? Sadly, that did not fit the pre-determined conclusion of this survey.

- What are we really doing here: It seems as though the Statists behind this survey don't have a clear grasp of what food assistance is designed to do. Programs such as welfare, WIC and the Lone Star Card (yes, I know, they are one and the same, but there are slight distinctions) are designed to be safety nets to prevent people from having no food at all. The choice is between starving and having some food to put on a plate. We're trying to act as if those on welfare need to decide whether or not to purchase their Champagne with or without a peacock splashing around. That latter line of thinking is where fiscal ruin lies.

- The bigger picture: Of course, I'm referring to the job market. People with jobs will make more money than people on welfare assistance, and they'll take more pride in the money earned. The secret to "closing the food gap" is to not try and close it at all. More importantly the secret is to create jobs and get unemployment down. Once you do that there will still be a food gap (there always is) but it will be far less critical.


And the solution will not require a big, expensive government program either.

What's not said....

....in today's San Antonio Express-News story about "clean energy" companies bringing jobs and economic manna to the city is where the profits will be found long-term?

(S.A. wins new jobs in clean energy, Tracy Idell Hamilton, MySanAntonio.com)

CPS Energy CEO Doyle Beneby is expected to announce Monday the relocation of several clean-energy-related companies to San Antonio, bringing hundreds of good-paying jobs and establishing a firm toehold in the “new energy economy” that Mayor Julián Castro has been pushing since he was first elected.

The article goes on to say that these companies are going to spend Millions on San Antonio education and infrastructure and are going to be giving away certain products FOR FREE!

Which all sounds well and good until you realize that pseudo-governmental agencies make up their economic short-falls on the backs of the taxpayer. Granted, free-market companies pass on their short-falls to the consumer, the difference being you have a choice in the private market, while in the regulated, government monopoly there's no relief from poorly ran companies who make short-sighted decisions partially for political reasons.

Somewhere, and forgive me but I don't remember where, I read a comment by a progressive suggesting that pseudo-governmental agencies shouldn't worry about profit at all. I can't state how much I agree with that. While agencies such as Metro and CPS Energy don't need to turn a profit because they're subsidized heavily, their goal should be to run as profitable as possible so that their impact on the taxpayer's wallet is none. Those profits could then either be sent to the general fund, or used to strengthen the infrastructures they operate.

Instead we have companies that are coming in and receiving Billions in government subsidies to do something the free-market has decided right now is unsustainable. Guess who's going to pay in the long run?

Hey Paul? *corrected*

I'm guessing you're nixing that planned run for Houston Mayor now right?

(Thousands lost in tax refund scam, Cindy George, Chron.com)

The Harris County Tax Office may have lost more than $350,000 to a fraud scam in which tax overpayment refunds were claimed by people not entitled to the money.
In a letter to County Commissioners on Friday, Assessor-Collector Don Sumners reported that the potential loss to his office is $356,629 from issuing as many as 17 checks from December 2009 through October 2010. The claims were made for tax years 2006, 2007 and 2008.

I can't believe that Chron.com didn't point out that this scam occurred during Bettencourt's tenure*. I'm not sure if that was because this article feels to be hastily prepared, or that the editors just didn't feel it to be all that important.

To me, when you have a candidate whose self-professed claim to fame is running a good organization and being a watchdog for the taxpayer, this seems like an automatic. Now granted, I'm not a fan of Mr. Bettencourt, nor his political guiding light Dan Patrick. I think both of them are political demagogues who are only in it for their own egos. So I admit that I'm chuckling just a little bit with the news of this. That being said, how in the world do you not mention who was in charge at the time?

*Oops. Obviously, as Kevin pointed out in the comments, I flubbed this. The infraction actually occurred during Vasquez tenure. Not Bettencourt's as I so gleefully opined. Has it really been three years since Paul resigned?

So, change that to "how did the Chron not contact Vasquez?"

My apologies to Mr. Bettencourt.*



*That is, before he quit his position to cash in on the property tax issue which he claimed to fight all those years. His founding that company was a sign to me the Dan had given up that fight.

If this estimate is accurate......

....we're toast.

High earning households pay growing share of taxes. John D. McKinnon, WSJ.com

And a new congressional study concludes that the percentage of U.S. households owing no federal income tax climbed to 51% for 2009.

I've long said that once this number gets to 50% +1 it's all over. America will have learned that they can vote themselves whatever they want from the public trust at the expense of others. When a majority are paying no taxes it does not behoove them to vote against candidates who promise them more of the same. i.e. class warfare.

So any time you hear a politician blathering on about someone paying their "fair share" remember that 51% number. That's 51% of people who are not paying their "fair share" while someone else pays it for them.

Here's the scary bit: Right now we're being assured that the "rich" can handle a bigger load, with "rich" being defined as a household earning more than $250,000 per year. Eventually, as the size of government keeps growing while wealth in America diminishes, the definition of "rich" is going to migrate down to where many progressives believe to to be anyway....somewhere around %60,000 per year and higher.

I've asked this question before: How much is "enough"?

The answer? More.

It's a good idea until you think about it.

Who's against walking and biking right? Oh sure, building roads that are designed for cars, bikes and pedestrians sounds like a good idea on it's face, and why SHOULDN'T TxDOT be required to build roads of this type?


There's no reason that I can see......Except one.

That's right, the one that makes you wonder if some elected officials think that all road construction is identical, and that all roads are the same. Except of course they're not, and pressing a bill to make "smart roads"* the norm in Texas has "Frogger" written all over it.

Bikes on Kriby? Brilliant.

Bikes on the 610 Loop? Bicycle blini's anyone?

To make this sporting there'd have to be a point system.


10 pts for a Huffy
20 pts for a Trek
Bonus pts if the bike rider is wearing the kit of a professional cycling team.

100 pts if they're wearing a yellow jersey replica.

Any program of this sort would require a large, unwieldy, inefficient government program to set and establish daily bag limits. You know, to keep the denizens of College Station from running away and hiding with a huge lead. This program would have to be promised as "revenue neutral" to be funded through application fees for bike and pedestrian hunting. It wouldn't be (of course) after the same people who sponsored the bills suddenly decided that expensive new trauma centers are needed to handle all of the new injured bikers and pedestrians these new roads would create. To fund these trauma centers 10% of licencing fees would be siphoned off and fed to these units, leading the elected officials responsible for this mess to suddenly claim there's a hole in the budget that can only be filled by a monster tax increase or thousands of injured bicyclists and walkers will be forced to use the normal emergency centers (which, as we all know, are the sole medical domain of the poor and migrant, if you listen to the doom-sayers).


As with any poorly thought-out piece of legislation trotted out more with the idea of garnering votes than passing good policy, the danger is in the (lack of) details.








*As we all know, if you want to guarantee something will be dumb, have some new urban think-tank put the word "smart" in front of it.

The Apple Dumpling Gang Strikes Again...(Part V)

Wow....

I'm not surprised that the Apple Dumpling Gang (and their InterLeft fellow travellers) are gung-ho about having the EPA take over Texas refining industry, what surprises me the most is their main argument: It's good for Texas.


Unless, that is, you're one of the approximately 30% of Houstonians (and the real number is probably higher) who earn a living off of the petro-chemical industry. THEN it's not so good for you. So the main argument seems to be that a lot of you will be homeless, but at least the air you breathe will be .05% lower in carbon dioxide.


Yup, that's worth killing the economy.


The funny thing is that those who claim to be "for the little guy" only look at the success of the big guys when they gauge an impact on an industry. Stock goes up? Well, everything must be just fine. Executives are raking in bonuses? Yup, all's well. What these residents of A Place Called Perfect ignore is that those stock price increases and bonuses are built on cost reduction in a profit-unfriendly environment. The single, biggest cost for most companies is labor. Industry giants look to other countries, smaller players lay-off and the unemployment rate hangs stubbornly around 9-10%. All to try and "fix" a problem that is most probably 99.98% natural occurrence.

Is the Earth's climate changing? You bet it is. Just as it has for Millennia, and will continue to do so even IF humanity were to shut down all traces of industrial activity tomorrow.

The best thing to do is try and live a clean life. Give a hoot, don't pollute, go out and buy some reusable grocery bags, conserve energy, join a local clean-up effort. And while industry progress on some clean-up efforts are (admittedly) slow, realize that forcing them to take drastic steps is just going to put a lot of people out on the street, with no immediate prospects for employment. (The so-called "green" economy being a jobs non-starter.)

Pollution sucks, we get that. But the answer to our pollution concerns is not going to be letting an activist EPA come in and start dismantling our economy so that Al Gore's green investment firm can realize another half-percent return on their principal. He's done a good job convincing a sizable minority that it is however. That this same minority's favorite political party is all but dead in Texas (for now) should tell you something.



New Year's Resolution: Live clean, don't buy the "green" hype. In other words: Be a Conservationist not an Ecomentalist. Your life, and the economy, will be better off for it.




Oh, and stop paying attention to The Apple Dumpling Gang. That's the first step to ridding Houston of intellectual pollutants.

Of Pensions and Balanced Budgets. (UPDATED)

***Updated with link***

In today's print only Chronicle (link here) there's a story about Houston's continuing problems with municipal pensions. The story, well written by ChronBlog reporter Bradley Olson, got me thinking.


Wasn't pension reform one of the planks of Bill White's "vote for me" platform?

Yes, it was. It also wasn't fixed as many critics of the White administration pointed out while being jeered down by White's blogger cabal. It's interesting that ChronBlog, one of White's biggest supporters, is choosing to report on this now, after White lost badly and their editorial choice for governor has been vanquished.

These are campaign claims that SHOULD have been given the journalism once-over in the same manner that Rick Perry's claims were. But they weren't. Which makes readers wonder: What, exactly, is Chronblog's reason for doing this now?

Metro is broken, the pension system is broken as is the City budget. These are problems that need serious discussion and serious solutions. "Cut at all costs" or "raise taxes (on people we don't like) at all costs" are not long-term answers to the problem. What Houston (and Texas) needs to do is take a long, hard look at how their spending money and then have a serious conversation about how to fund the core priorities that most agree are needed.

Education? Agreed, we do have to teach our children. But are we going about it in the most cost-efficient, effective way?

Public Safety? You bet. But are we using all of the tools available to us, and are we spending money where it's needed? (And yes, Republicans, that includes taking steps to reduce the prison & jail population)

Transportation? Yes, but are we building roads where they need to be? And, most importantly, are our mass transit plans designed to move people where they need to go?

The safety net? Republicans would say "no" but I'm of the thought that most Americans agree some form of safety net is needed. The question is, how much and how to pay for it.

The easy answer is to change the way we fund things in Texas (and Nationally) from the ground up, and to remove political influence from the taxation process. The reality is that this not going to be easy because special interests die hard. If Texas wants to succeed going forward however they're going to have to do some serious navel-gazing in order find answers that will work for the Tea Party crowd, as well as Texas conservative majority.

Glad to see Houston has solved it's budget woes.

...How else can one explain hiring graffiti artists to paint a mural in a downtown parking garage? Not that I have a problem with graffiti artists (provided, of course, that they don't graffiti my house or property) but it sure seems odd that the City would go out of it's way to spend money on something like this while simultaneously raising fees in order to meet the budget crunch.

While $30K is not material to the City budget as a whole, it's indicative of spending cuts that the City should be making, but aren't. And it makes the Apple Dumpling Gang's contention that the fee hikes are inevitable in the current economy sound even more daft.

It's high time our local elected officials (on the City and County level) take a straight-razor to the budget and cut off the excess fat before deciding that pet owners and ambulance drivers should cover the cost of art installations in parking lots for libraries whose hours are being cut due to cost constraints.

Here's an idea: Don't lay-off the librarians, and lose the mural.


Just a thought.

DOI: BP liable for royalties on spilled oil

Ouch

(BP Liable for Reporting and Royalties on Oil and Gas from Leaking Well, Department of the Interior)

Interior’s chief oil and gas regulatory official has informed BP that it must report all oil and gas-related activities at the damaged Macondo well and pay royalties on all oil and gas captured from the leaking well. The company also will be liable for royalties on lost or wasted oil and gas if it is determined that negligence or regulatory violations caused or contributed to the Deepwater Horizon explosion and subsequent leak.

Michael R. Bromwich, director of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEM), officially notified BP of its reporting responsibility and royalty liability in a July 15th letter to Guy Otwell, of BP America Inc.’s Tax Department, noting that the company’s failure to fulfill these obligations could be considered a knowing and willful violation of the Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Management Act. Bromwich’s letter also noted that the Interior Department reserves “any and all rights and remedies available to the United States arising from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.”

A lot of us here at the Evil Empire were wondering how BP was going to have to deal with that. It makes sense though, since royalties are really a payment for mineral wealth extracted from the earth.

Typically, royalties are paid on volumes sold, with the expectation being that almost all volumes, minus loss allowances, will eventually pass through the sales point. In a case where volumes are lost not due to a force majeure, then the producer could also be liable for royalties on those un-sold volumes as well.

I'm sure BP didn't want to see that, but there you go. It's a very real financial incentive to not scrimp on safety. Some companies realize this.

A great sucking increase....

Torry Gattis of Houston Strategies linked to this interactive map from Forbes.com showing migration patterns in America from county to county.

Superficially Harris County looks pretty good, with huge net gains vs. the net losses of other counties etc.


A closer look at the numbers however reveals a worrying trend: ON average, the people moving OUT of Harris County have higher incomes than those moving INTO Harris County.

In other words, instead of attracting skilled or executive jobs the county seems to be bringing in unskilled laborers or the unemployed. Backing up that contention is this story that doesn't place Harris County in the top 50 as far as "where America's money is moving".

In an earlier post I stated that Houston needed to get it's pro-business, pro-jobs mojo back in a bad way. People often point to Harris County's growth as evidence this is not so. What they forget is that people who come in without skills and employment are just another drain on local government, a government that's running on fumes as it is.

Another problem is that the IRS isn't counting the influx of people coming into Harris County from non-US sources, neither are they quantifying their income. (or, lack of one from most media accounts.)

Growth for growth's sake is not the economic indicator that many believe. In most cases the numbers are more nuanced than what the superficial picture reveals.

Bread and Circuses

Or: Why getting rid of car commutes is a bad idea.


Last night, on my 40 min drive home from work, I came up with an idea to both preserve the Union and provide the good people of America a smattering of distraction while we're at it. Put simply: It's time to establish a National Lottery & BINGO system that takes advantage of the feelings held by citizens across the political spectrum.

Think about it. USLotto scratch-off cards where Liberals can claw out the eyes of Wall Street executives. "Breeder" cards that allow members of the GLBT movement to undress their most hated Conservative opponents, Global Warming specials that allow you to single-handedly remove oil rigs from the gulf. The possibilities are endless. Not that I left the Red states out of the equation. Cards could be created allowing Republicans to scratch out Rahm's eyes, to eliminate social entitlements with glee, starting with healthcare for children and moving on to welfare for illegals. And speaking of illegals, in Arizona you could have a "deport someone who doesn't look like you" card complete with rifle-shaped scratch-off tools that you could sell for $20. It's the new-age accessory of the moment.

Here's the clever bit. Those who are planted squarely on one side of the fence or another won't even require a jackpot to entice them to play. That's right, it's Lotto without the possibility of riches at the end. "How would this work?" You might be asking. It's very simple. Lotteries are nothing more than taxes on those who are poor at math. Politics takes this one step further, as people often support policies that are going to harm them financially while refusing to believe that the most-likely scenario is really going to happen. In short: Americans don't think things through. Ours is a Country that often acts on political emotion, removed from political logic. Just have Obama & Bush give a joint presser about the joys of the new scratch-off system and you'll have lines of community activists, protesters and bloggers beating down the door to buy, and scratch-off cards that promise them...nothing.

Sure, to round up the dollars of the unmotivated poor you could decide to do a traditional lottery, and then add a rider to a farm-aid bill taxing Federal lottery winnings at 99.99% with no debate. At least 90% of Americans won't know that said tax is in place. Now watch the money roll in.

The second part of my plan is to create a BINGO game but with a 21st century twist. At first I thought about calling the game OBAMA, but the two "A's" kind of skew the whole "O-7" thingy. A better idea would be to call this game BIDEN. That way, when people win, they can holler out BIDEN! and then say "This is a big f***ing deal!" Only if you say the last part can you win. For the Red States you can call it PALIN, with winners having to whistle as they walk up to collect their winnings.

It's win-win America, a one-stop, relatively painless solution for cutting the National deficit AND channelling all of that pent-up political anger and frustration. All I ask for creating the plan for saving the Union is a simple 2% developers fee. I'd have made it 1% but hey, I've got bills to pay.


And "smart-growth" proponents say that nothing good comes from long commute times.

Playing the odds.

There's a lot of white noise surrounding the expansion of gambling debate in Texas these days, much of it created by advocacy groups or reporters and bloggers who don't understand the issue anyway, about "how much" or "how little" expanded casino gambling is expected to generate for Texas coffers. Estimates in this Robert Garnett, Dallas Morning News article on the budget quotes House Budget Chief Jim Pitts (R - Waxahachie) estimating the figure at "$4 Billion" per year. This Ross Ramsey, Texas Tribune article contains estimates from $2 Billion down to somewhere around $110 Million per year.

So that's the projections, what about the actuals?

1. Unfortunately, the actual current revenue numbers for Texas gaming are not easily determined. since the pari-mutual tax is obviously bundled with something else in the State's database. However, according to the 2009 Annual Report by the Texas Racing Commission, pari-mutuel betting resulted in $3.5 Million in taxes paid to the State in 2009, a number that was down from the prior year and which has been in decline for years prior to that.

We also know, from the State's revenue database that the Texas Lottery is generating approximately $1.5 Billion dollars in gross sales, although despite the fact the title is "net lottery proceeds" it's unclear that administration & awards costs have been removed from that account.

However, given the information available to the public at a superficial level. (Digging deeper would require a FOIA act, something that the HCA budget of just about nothing cannot afford.) It can probably be assumed that monies from all sources of gambling would come in at around $2 Billion dollars/year but with only $3.5 Million of that coming from non-government ran (read: Lottery) sources.

Based on that information it'd be difficult to assume that Texas casinos, or the inclusion of slot-machines in racing venues, would come anywhere NEAR the $4 Billion potential windfall for the State that's being forecast by industry supporters.

Then, there's this data point as reported by Michael McNutt of OK news via the Tulsa World:

Tribal gaming fees have contributed $107.5 million to the state coffers so far this fiscal year, Meacham said. It's expected that tribal gaming fees will bring in about $120 million by the end of this fiscal year, June 30, he said.

Read more from this Tulsa World article at http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20100603_11_A1_Gamble847987

Coincidentally, I just got back from a vacation in Oklahoma where the wife and I stopped off at one of the casinos right next to the Texas/Oklahoma border. It's a casino where I go frequently to play poker. They just opened a new tower hotel and casino, with a totally revamped poker room that's on par with many that you find in Vegas.

The parking lot was also packed with cars & trucks.....from Texas.

If you assume that probably 3/4 of Oklahoma's casino revenue is sourced from Texas, and that you can probably make the same assumptions about Louisiana gambling revenue, it appears that the $110 Million projection is going to be much closer to reality than is the pie-in-the-sky projections of Billions.

My back-of-the-napkin estimate pegs the increased revenue at around $200-$250 Million if full casinos are approved, around $10-15 Million if expansion is limited to slot machines in race tracks. (See Delta Downs in Louisiana for a good way that would work)

Still, any way you look at it, that's money that's currently heading outside the State that wouldn't, and that could be the most compelling argument of all.

Answer: Brick

Question: What is this likely to fly as well as?

(Parker proposes big water and sewer rate increases, Bradley Olson, ChronBlog, 04/06/10)

Mayor Annise Parker's administration is proposing drastic water and sewer rate increases to shore up a Combined Utility System that has operated with multi-million budget deficits for several years.

Go read the entire article for the details, as well as the wailing and gnashing of teeth from Councilmembers worried about "the poor". (read: votes) In all likelihood there's not much Mayor Parker could do. She's been elected Chief Executive Officer of a company who's operations budget has been slashed for several years now so the City could build legacies and cater to special interests, nothing about water & sewer is sexy....until yours goes out, a main breaks, or worse.

Already (in the comments to the story) are the calls to 'privatize the system'. I've a feeling this won't work, but that's going to be the hue and cry anyway.


Until then, good luck to Mayor Parker as she continues the work of fixing the City of Houston finances. She's going to need it. (and, it appears, asbestos underwear)

Dip ahead.

Harris County Property tax values to drop 4%.....



What we need right now is a Tax Increment Re-investment Zone, to fund construction of a minor-league Soccer stadium, which will divert even more funds from city coffers over time. If, the values start going back up....if they stay down or flat....there will be no margins for the TIRZ to take. (Guess who pays for the stadium then?)